


KitTy Horror Nights

by Fluxx



Series: The Spook Cruise, 2017 [12]
Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Fluff, Halloween, Halloween Horror Nights, Haunted Houses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 16:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12461139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluxx/pseuds/Fluxx
Summary: Ty surprises Kit with tickets to a Mundane attraction he's been wanting to go to for years - Universal Studio'sHalloween Horror Nights.  Kit worries it'll be too much for Ty, but Ty insists that they go anyway, and they both find a way to enjoy their outing.Prompt response for The Spook Cruise, 2017:Kitty + haunted house.Submit a prompt for The Spook Cruise!





	KitTy Horror Nights

Kit’s stormy eyes slowly lifted from the papers in his hands, seeking the steel-grey hues he knew wouldn’t be looking back at him. “Ty,” he finally whispered, still blankly staring at the black-haired beauty, “are you  _certain_?”

“Of course,” the other boy replied plainly. His brow furrowed slightly, puzzling over the question. “I wouldn’t have bought the tickets if I weren’t.”

It was an indisputable point. In Kit’s experience, at least, Ty never did anything he didn’t want to, unless he was being forced. That fact in and of itself brought Kit to question Ty’s motives, but that alone wouldn’t be enough for Kit to reject the odd gift. A smile played across his lips as he delicately folded the papers and slipped them into his jeans’ back pocket. “Alright. You’re ready to go?”

Ty nodded, then moved aside for Kit to leave his room and start leading the way. “We won’t need anything special, will we?” The slightest hint of worry touched his voice - more like paranoia, perhaps, a stray concern he’d made some kind of miscalculation, or looked over a key detail.

Kit chuckled, his hand slipping familiarly into Ty’s as he started off down the Institute’s hall. “Nah. We shouldn’t even need any of our weapons - security at these things are pretty tight.”

Ty’s hand tightened in Kit’s, and his teeth clenched. “I’m not leaving my knife.”

Kit smirked. “Of course not.”

LA traffic was about as miserable as usual, the journey made only slightly better by the fact neither of them had to actually drive in it. They spent most of the taxi ride in silence, Ty listening to his music and staring out the window, Kit eyeing him in a kind of distant fascination, and the driver thankfully leaving the pair of them well enough alone. Occasionally, Ty would break his silence with a question about the event they were heading to, and Kit would answer as fully and clearly as he could. Of course, translating Mundane customs in a way Shadowhunters could understand was a feat in and of itself. After sitting on Kit’s explanations for a few minutes, turning it over and over in his brain, Ty would inevitably return with another question, and Kit would again answer to the best of his ability. For some, it might have been a frustrating process - for Kit, it was a cherished opportunity, a rare glimpse into the inner-workings of Ty’s mind and chance to learn more about this companion he’d grown so fond of.

About an hour later, the glowing, digital sign for Universal Studios at last pulled into view, greeting them with a rotation of various brightly-colored promises for what horrors might await them within. Kit turned a grin to the boy beside him. “Looks like we’re here!”

For a moment, it looked like Ty might remark on the absurdity of Kit’s statement - where else would they be, if not for the very place they’d asked their driver to take them? After a brief hesitation, he identified it as one of those things people let go for reasons he didn’t think he’d ever fully understand, and instead offered Kit a precarious smile of his own. “Yes, we are.”

They climbed out of the taxi once it pulled to a stop before the park’s massive, grand entrance, Kit riffling through his wallet to pay the driver while Ty warily took in their surroundings. The place was crowded, hordes of mundanes swarming towards the entry gates in tank tops, ripped jeans, sandals, and baseball caps. Some carried small backpacks, others seemed to have nothing with them but the drinks in their hands. The sun had already dipped below the horizon, but that didn’t stop the place from reeking of sweat and sunscreen - punctuated, of course, with the occasional waft of buttered popcorn or fried food.

Above all else, however, it was  _loud_ , louder than any place Ty had ever been. He felt his shoulders tense and his hands grip the edges of his shirt - until soft fingertips graced along his knuckles. He whirled, heart still racing, and couldn’t help but distantly smile at the blonde-veiled eyes peering back at him.

“You alright?” Kit patiently repeated, meanwhile searching him for all the telltale signs of Ty’s surmounting anxiety.

Ty shied into himself, his gaze drifting away and towards the gum-ridden sidewalk all around them.  _Mundanes are filthy_. “It’s a lot,” he murmured, suddenly regretting the whole thing. He felt Kit’s hand move further up his arm, then delicate hold his elbow. It was a far more grounding hold, one for which he was indescribably grateful.

“We can head back if you like,” Kit offered, nothing but sincere concern in his voice. Though Ty wasn’t looking at him, he nonetheless smiled, knowing it’d add a degree of cheer to his voice. “Or we can wander elsewhere. Whatever you want to do.”

Ty’s eyes suddenly snapped back to him.  _It’s not about what **I**  want to do._ “No, we should go ahead,” he insisted, moving Kit’s hand from his elbow so he could intertwine their fingers. “You’ve always wanted to go, right?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Then we should go.” Suddenly, Ty was leading the way, half-dragging Kit alongside him as his long, slender legs swiftly closed the distance between the two boys and the park’s entrance.

Behind him, Kit sighed, then quickened his pace to better keep pace. “Alright.”

Despite the huge crowd, they got through the gates rather quick. The park’s staff had the whole process working like a well-oiled machine, one that only briefly stuttered when one of the prospective guests took issue with some rule or other. To the staff’s credit, there were quite a handful of such troublemakers, but even then altogether Kit and Ty stepped into the terror-themed world of  _Halloween Horror Nights_  inside of ten minutes. (Luckily, they’d identified which of the security personnel hailed from the local werewolf pack, and slipped through bag-check without so much as a yawn at their Seraph blades. The more protection for the Mundanes, the better, though things hopefully wouldn’t ever come to that.)

They were immediately consumed by the constant, dull roar of the event, a mixture of ambient sounds and eerie music and excited chatter and sudden shrieks. Subconsciously, Ty huddled closer to Kit, and Kit knew it had nothing to do with any kind of fear. “Do you want to try one of the houses?” he offered, his free hand lifting to draw Ty’s attention with a subtle tug of his sleeve.

Ty turned to him with a curious look, carefully debating his words before he finally replied with another question. “Is that what you want to do?”

Kit shrugged as casually as he could, trying to mute his eagerness for his companion’s sake. “I think it could be fun.” He glanced around at the park-goers. He hesitated, not wanting to give Ty the wrong impression, then meekly offered, “I don’t know exactly how it’ll be, but they control how quickly they let people through the houses. It...  _could_  be less crowded inside them.”

It sounded promising enough. Ty’s smile grew more genuine as he nodded. “I’ll give it a try, then.” Still standing close to Kit, he looked up and surveyed their surroundings, spotting the nearest attraction swiftly enough. “How’s that one?” he asked, pointing in its direction.

The house’s sign brought a smirk across Kit’s features. “ _SAW_. Nice.” He tightened his hold of Ty’s hand and led the way.

The swift and fluid way he navigated the crowd allowed Ty to fall easily into step behind him like a fish riding the current of a stream. A stray Scareactor jumped towards them here-or-there along their path, but the most reaction it drew from either Shadowhunter was a mild grimace from Ty. He leaned over and whispered in Kit’s ear, “Mundanes are actually frightened by that?”

“Sort of,” Kit laughed. “It’s more that they’re surprised by the suddenness of it.”

“Oh,” Ty replied, subconsciously veering away as another Scareactor screamed at them. “And they enjoy it?” He looked over his shoulder, watching as other attendants cried out, then collapsed into fitful laughter.

“Uh,” Kit murmured, slowing down as they approached the SAW house. He turned to follow Ty’s gaze, coming up with some way to explain. “You know the way you feel after you’ve successfully defended yourself or someone else from a demon attack?” When Ty nodded, he continued, “It’s like that. They’re never  _really_  in danger, but they trick themselves into  _feeling_  in danger, and when it passes they feel the relief of the aftermath, and they get to feel it again and again without ever actually being in trouble.”

“Oh,” Ty once more replied, though a certain blankness in his expression betrayed that he really only  _mostly_  understood. He understood well enough to be satisfied, anyway, turning and nodding towards the house beside them. “Well, are you ready to be ‘surprised,’ then?”

Kit smirked. “More than ever!”

As Kit had promised, the staff manning the attraction allowed people into the house in steady, periodic waves. Only a few seconds separated each group, but with the slow pace they took moving through the attraction that was plenty enough space to feel totally separated from anyone else. At last, Kit and Ty stepped up to the entrance, waited their few seconds, and were then welcomed through the heavy, metal doors with a devilishly-gleaming grin.

The inside of the house was far worse than the exterior, worse than Ty could possibly have imagined. Lights flashed constantly, and loud noises burst from unseen speakers hidden on all sides. Fog billowed all around them, and things moved in proximity far too close for Ty’s liking. It was a sensory onslaught that sent Ty on edge... but he grit his teeth and bared it, eyes fixating upon the boy beside him.

Every sudden movement and noise elicited at least a startled jump, but sometimes an all-out scream from Kit, the latter soon followed suit by a burst of hysteric laughter. Watching his fellow Shadowhunter take such delight in the bizarre attraction fascinated Ty, and as he studied Kit’s reactions he slowly came to better understand what Kit had meant with his prior explanations. Though he often didn’t grasp the reasons why, Ty knew his teammates often worried for each other’s safety when they went on missions. He, of course, understood the inherent danger in it all, but it had always seemed counter-productive to “worry” about it. Did they not all accept these kinds of threats when they took up arms and ventured beyond the Institute’s doors?

But regardless of their reasons why, Ty knew they always felt it, as much as he knew they enjoyed a certain kind of thrill from it all. Here, he watched as Kit enjoyed thrill after thrill, his laughter more contagious with every fit, all of it unburdened by any  _real_  concern for safety. Slowly, Ty even found himself grinning, though it had much more to do with the boy in his hand than the manic flailing of an underpaid actor, or the sensor-triggered whirling of a random prop. By the time they reached the house’s end, Ty even found himself softly giggling and Kit’s final, shrill cry, despite the pounding headache it and the surrounding cacophony of noise imparted.

He must have been wincing from it all, because as soon as they’d jogged a few feet away from the house’s exit Kit turned to face him, and immediately his joyous expression fell. “Ty!” he cried in a hush, stepping closer and taking both of Ty’s hands into his own. His brow had crumpled, and his turbulent gaze seemed on the verge of rain. “I’m so sorry, Ty. Was that too much?”

“Mm,” Ty murmured noncommittally. His wandering eyes found a nearby picnic table, recently abandoned by a departing group of rowdy teenagers. He nodded towards it, and without saying anything more Kit understood, swiftly guiding the two of them over to claim the relatively quieter spot before anyone else.

When they settled upon the plastic-coated, metal mesh, Kit again turned to Ty, guilt-ridden and attempting to comfort Ty through the gentle stroking of his arm. “I’m sorry, Ty,” he repeated. “I should’ve warned you better.”

“No, I knew,” Ty murmured, shaking his head. His stare was drifting again, uncertain just what to look at.

Kit blinked in surprise. “You did? But, you  _hate_  loud environments, and this is, like... the loudest of loud environments.” He emphasized his point with a gesture to the park surrounding them, still saturated with distant cries and explosive sound effects.

“I know,” Ty replied. He knew that wouldn’t be enough, his face turning to regard the hand lingering by his arm. His own moved to fold around it, and then he hesitantly stole a curious glance at Kit’s face. Whatever he saw, or didn’t see, apparently disheartened him, a kind of distant discomfort rustling across his features. “But,  _you_  liked it, right?”

Finally, it occurred to Kit just what Ty had been getting at this whole time, and he felt like a massive idiot. To confirm, he put on a smile, which turned into a wide grin the very moment he saw the way his brightened expression in turn lifted Ty’s. “Yeah,” he replied, then finally closed the distance between them to pull Ty into a tight hug, his face nestled into the crook of Ty’s neck and his arms coiling tightly around the scrawny boy’s body. “I loved it, Ty.”

Kit could feel Ty exhale with what he knew to be relief, his slender hands finding spots along Kit’s back. “Good,” he murmured into Kit’s ruffled hair, his hot breath sending a shudder down Kit’s spine. “I’d hoped you would.”

Kit gave Ty a tight, thankful squeeze, then reluctantly drew apart, just enough so they could regard each other. Their foreheads remained pressed together, voices low because they didn’t need to be any louder, because their words were meant for each other and no one else.

“Thank you, Ty. Do you want to head back to the Institute?”

“...I liked seeing you happy. We can do one more house, if you like.”

“You’re certain?”

Kit felt Ty’s head subtly nod beside his own. “Of course I am.”

Kit smirked, then turned his face inward so he could leave behind a soft kiss to Ty’s cheek as he drew fully away. The resulting blush made him giddy as he stood up, ready to lead them to their next house.

“Alright.”


End file.
